1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for generating retinal images using the stigmatism of two foci of a substantially elliptical diopter.
More particularly, its object is to solve problems of viewing virtual realities or augmented realities, by the retina of the eye.
Generally, it is known that many studies have been carried out in the field of displaying of information superimposed on the vision of the environment captured by the retina of the eye.
2. Description of Prior Art
These methods intended for military applications during first developments in the 1960s, consist of projecting on a semi-reflecting transparent surface, symbols and information relating to the piloting of the aircraft, i.e., in this case, a horizon line, speed, altitude and guiding information for approaching the landing runway. These devices, so-called high head collimators, facilitate the piloting of the aircraft by allowing direct perception of the speed vector, of the incidence and of the potential slope, as well as a graduated horizon and a synthetic runway with positioning information on the automatic landing system. With this symbology, approaches with or without visibility may be piloted intuitively and accurately; however, it should be sufficiently relevant while not occulting the actual field of view.
Introduction of these high head collimators is effective to date in civil cockpits with which the approach may be essentially facilitated and thereby avoiding erroneous perceptions, upon visual approach, of the height and trajectory under particular atmospheric conditions.
More recently, automobile manufacturers have developed high head display devices directly on the windscreen of the vehicle; indeed, the time required for moving the eye (diversion time) for viewing the information, added to the accommodation time and reading time of the eye (fixation time), added to the return time (diversion time) is of 1 second in the conventional environment with an instrument panel: It is of 0.5 second in high head vision; this reduction in the overall perception time for a piece of information corresponds to a 8 meter travel of the vehicle at 60 kilometers per hour.
These devices require that the image be projected on a transparent surface via an optical apparatus, placed below or above the instrument panel or the dashboard, comprising several lenses and mirrors. Thus, these devices similar to overhead projectors are bulky and require fittings in the driver's cell.
Another solution consists of projecting the image on the visor of a helmet; this solution adopted by fighter pilots notably allows a synthetic rear view to be displayed; it is also adopted by surgeons as an aid for conducting surgical operations, as well as by motorcyclists.
The most ergonomic solution consists of directly projecting the image on the retina; this solution however requires that the movement of the eye be taken into account, a short latency time, a horizontal and vertical field of view close to that of the eye and self-collimation at infinity of the image allowing natural accommodation of the eye.
The present devices consist of placing an optical module, mounted on a helmet, close to the eye; the optical module either uses a laser type source or LCD, LCoS or OLED type displays and particularly bulky optical architectures notably when the field-of-view angles provided to the user are large; these bulky dimensions increase all the more with the field of view provided to the user.